Intimate Letters

Over the last decade of his life the Czech composer Leo Janacek wrote regularly to his 'hoped-for wife' Kamila Stvsslova. A comprehensive selection of these letters has been translated and edited by John Tyrrell, the renowned Janacek scholar. Supported by a diary of meetings, a decoding of the erotic references in the letters and a selection of mostly unknown photographs, this remarkable book illuminates the inner life of one of the greatest opera composers of the twentieth century.

John Tyrrell is Professor of Music at Cardiff University. His books include Czech Opera, Janacek's Operas and editions of the memoirs of Janacek's widow and Janacek's correspondence with Kamila Stoesslova . He is co-author of the standard catalogue of Janacek's works and, with Sir Charles Mackerras, he edited Janacek's opera Jenufa. In 2002 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Masaryk University of Brno for his work on Janacek and Czech music.